418 Mr. F. O. Ward's Physiological Remarks 



solute strength of muscles in different individuals may be, 

 their relative strength will be found nearly alike in all, ex- 

 ception being of course made for the influence of habitual 

 employments upon particular muscles. If, for example, in 

 one arm the power of the biceps were one, and that of the tri- 

 ceps two, in another arm the power of whose triceps was two, 

 that of the triceps would be four, or thereabouts ; or if not so, 

 the difference would be compensated by a counter-variation in 

 the leverage. 



It is also probable that in the same individual, under va- 

 rious conditions of lassitude or excitement, whether produced 

 by bodily or by mental affections, each muscle retains its normal 

 relation in point of strength to the others, whatever may be 

 its actual gain or loss of contractility. So that if this ratio 

 were once established by the mean results of cautious experi- 

 ments, it would be possible, from the absolute strength of one 

 muscle, or set of muscles, to deduce by calculation the absolute 

 strength ofeach of the remaining muscles in thesame individual. 

 We should of course meet with irregularities; some caused 

 bv disproportionate growth, and bearing an ascertainable re- 

 lation to its degree ; and others depending on circumstances 

 beyond the range either of observation, or of calculation ; but 

 if a standard proportion does really exist, the deviations from 

 it are certainly in opposite directions, and the true ratio will 

 be discovered by taking the average of an extensive series of 

 measurements and estimates. And when we reflect that 

 within the last few years constant numerical proportions have 

 been developed by Wenzel, Berzelius, Dalton, and others, in 

 the chemical affinities of ponderable matter, and by Faraday in 

 the action of the imponderable forces ; and — still more to the 

 purpose — that mathematical laws so fixed and definite as to 

 serve for the distinction of species, have been discovered by 

 Schimper and Braun* to regulate vegetable growth ; it seems 

 not unreasonable to surmise, that numerical proportions, as 

 certain and invariable, may govern the secret workings of 

 animal life, and be hereafter revealed by the discovery of ac- 

 curate, though involved, mathematical relations, between the 

 several organs of the animal machinef. 



A rigorous analysis of the mechanical relations of the mus- 



* Archives de Botaniqnc, vol. i. ; Martin's Abstract of Braiin's Paper ; 

 Henslow's Introduction to Botany, p. 124; Lirdley's Introduction to 

 Botany, second edition, p. 91. Lindley thus states the result of the inquiry : 

 " The whole of the appendages of the axis of plants, -leaves, calyx, corolla, 

 stamens, and carpels, — form an uninterrupted spire governed by laws which 

 are nearly constant." For the causes of the occasional deviations from 

 these primary laws, see Henslow's Introduction, § 121. 



t I trust that an hypothesis thus indicated by the analogy of several as- 

 certained laws, capable of induitive examination, and whether erroneous 



